Advent 2010
by mangaluva
Summary: 24 days, 24 fandoms, each celebrating Christmas- or their nearest equivalent- in their own way. Merry Christmas 2010, everybody!  Contains miscellaneous movies, books and video games as well as anime and manga.
1. Professor Layton: Snow and Memories

**Day: **01

**Fandom: **Professor Layton- a game series about a man who solves puzzles and mysteries with the power of his epic top hat. Sort of.

**Themes(s): **Snow, Memories

**Words: **597

**Warnings: **Snowballs and spoilers for _The Lost Future._

"_Oh, Hershel, look! It's so pretty!"_

_Hershel looked up from his book to see Claire glued to the window, staring out at the cold grey day that had been transformed by a million tiny flakes of white, seeming to appear from nowhere to settle gently and pile on the ground. There was already a white layer over everything, making the dead winter day glow. Claire's eyes were glowing too as she turned to him, before smiling brightly and running for the door._

"_Don't forget your coat," he said, smiling as he handed the warm garment to her. She slipped her arms through it while wiggling her feet into her boots, and leaned back against him briefly, allowing him to wrap his arms around her. Then she pulled away again._

"_Get yours too!" she called, running out of the door and into the snow, twirling, laughing happily as she looked up at the falling snow in almost childish wonder…_

"_Hershel…"_

"Professor? Professor!"

"Uh… oh, forgive me, Flora," the Professor said, a little muzzily as he sat up, straightening his hat. Had he fallen asleep at his desk in the middle of the day? Surely not. Only old men did that. "Is something the matter?"

"Look!" the girl said brightly, pointing out of the window. Fat white flakes of snow were falling lazily to the ground. "It's snowing! Can I go out and play?"

"Wrap up warm, then," the Professor said, stretching surreptitiously as he got up. "Your good coat _and_ a scarf." Flora cheered and hurried from the room. The Professor paused by the window, watching the snow thicken the already heavy cover of white over the street.

"_Did it start before I fell asleep?_" he wondered. "_Is that why I dreamed about that memory…?_"

It had been six months since he'd been forced to say goodbye again, and Claire still haunted him, stronger than she had since the day she'd died, ten years ago.

"Isn't it pretty?" Flora said brightly as he stepped outside, hovering protectively on the doorstep to make sure that his ward's play didn't draw her over the now-invisible line between pavement and street, where cars and buses were still occasionally ploughing through the snow. She was spinning happily, looking up at the falling snow in wonder. His dream swam past his eyes again, sharp and vivid enough to take his breath away. When he could see clearly again, though, Flora looked sad.

"I wonder if it's snowing in America…" she said distantly, dragging the Professor back to the present, and thoughts of another loss, just as recent but far less permanent.

"Why don't you write to Luke and ask?" He said gently. "We'll have to send him a Christmas card soon, if it's to get there by Christmas. Would you like to write him a letter to put in it?"

"That sounds like a good idea!" Flora said, brightening up again and moving towards the door, before pausing and looking at the snow again. "… I'll do it this evening."

The Professor smiled a little as he watched the girl go back to kicking up the snow, beginning to roll some of it together, the clinging loneliness easing a little. After all, it wasn't as if he was alone this time, was it? He had his friends, he had his "children". Maybe he ought to write a letter to his "apprentice" as well, wondering how Luke was doing in his first Christmas in America…

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted again, this time when a small but nevertheless forceful snowball knocked his hat off.

_Another advent calendar fic! This time it's for 24 different fandoms, with something special on Christmas day ;) Anyway, starting things off with my current obsession, the _Professor Layton _series. If you've not played any of the games, I urge you to try one, because the puzzles are brilliant, the characters are charming and the cut scenes are gorgeous. Plus, the movie is brilliant ;) Also, if you're an angst addict like me, you'll like _The Lost Future_ because it has possibly the saddest ending of any videogame ever to exist. Which I've just spoiled horribly :P_

_I do not own the good Professor, Claire Folly, Flora Reinhold or Luke Triton. They are all the property of Level-5 and Nintendo._


	2. Maison Ikkoku: Wrapping Presents

**Day: **02

**Fandom: **Maison Ikkoku**- **screwball romantic comedy about a penniless student living in a boarding house for what appears to be the clinically insane and falling in love with his beautiful, widowed young landlady.

**Themes(s): **Wrapping Presents

**Words: **318

**Warnings: **Yotsuya.

"Gaaah!" Yuusaku screamed in fury, throwing the small bundle against the wall, where it was snatched out of the air and disappeared into a large hole. That just made him even angrier.

"Hey, give that-" He started to yell, bolting over, but froze in his tracks as someone knocked softly on his door. Only one person in this madhouse was polite enough to knock.

"Y-y-yes, manager?" he said politely as he opened the door. A look of deep concern was marring Kyoko's beautiful face…

"Is everything alright, Godai?" she asked. "Only I heard yelling…"

"Oh… I… uh…" glancing over, he saw eyes watching him from the Hole, clutching something…

"_Go away!_" he hissed, before turning back to Kyoko, all smiles and sunniness. "I just dropped my pencil and it broke, is all! I'll just sharpen it, it's fine!" he was vaguely aware that he was babbling as he tried to close the door.

"Well, okay…" she said, glancing suspiciously into the room but failing to spot anything (especially the present, thankfully). Only after Yuusaku had seen her walk back down the stairs that he slammed his door closed and turned to glare at the thief.

"Give it back, Yotsuya…" he growled, looking confused when he saw that the item that he'd had so much difficulty wrapping was now perfectly wrapped, bow and all. It was sitting on Yotsuya's hand while his neighbour watched him boredly from his usual spot, poking his head through the hole in the dividing wall. "Did you wrap that? Hey, thanks…" when he reached out to take it, however, Yotsuya drew back the package and extended his other, pointedly empty hand.

"Surely you didn't think I'd give such a fine gift back for free, did you, poor naïve boy?" he said flatly. "With an extra two thousand yen if you want me to get you cheap tickets to the Christmas Party at Akemi's bar."

_Day 2 in Maison Ikkoku… I have no placement for this on the timeline, but since to my best estimate the manga covers seven years and I can only remember chapters centring around about three Christmases, take your pick XD_

_Crap, did I really forget to post this yesterday? Sorry! (Must pay more attention…)_

_It's a good way to fill the days I'm trapped inside due to the snowdrifts, __**Roseanni**__ :) I swear that game was the saddest thing; even my brother admitted to "manly tears" at the end XD_

_The fandoms are a secret until I write 'em, __**Lisa Telramor**__ ;) I don't have to walk through the snow to work… because the council's stopped all of the buses until it's safe to drive on the streets again, or at least until a tractor flattens the six-foot snowdrifts -_-_

_I do not own Maison Ikkoku. That belongs to Takahashi Rumiko-sama, whose manga I worship._


	3. YuGiOh: Getting Stuck

**Day: **03

**Fandom: **YuGiOh- a sixteen-year-old midget with absurd but apparently natural hair repairs a cursed Egyptian artefact and is possessed by an ancient spirit who curses all who oppose him to death/insanity via grotesque "Shadow Games". Then he gets addicted to a card game that the mangaka made up on a whim.

**Themes(s): **Getting Stuck

**Words: **499

**Warnings: **Potential Friendship speeches.

"What?" Yugi said in dismay, grabbing the edge of the desk to pull himself up to almost eye-level with the clerk. Was he ever going to get taller? "When's the next flight?"

"Tomorrow, five o' clock in the morning," the clerk said in slightly fractured English. He'd probably have done better if he'd spoken French, but the major flaw in that was that he couldn't speak French.

"Can I book-" he looked back and did a quick headcount. "-seven seats on the flight? Is that possible?"

The clerk tapped away at his computer for a few minutes, and then nodded. "Yes. Seven seats. There are many empty. Wait and I will get tickets." He disappeared along the counter for a while, before returning with a sheaf of tickets. "Five o'clock, gate twelve, charge to same account?"

"Yes please," Yugi sighed, taking the tickets and wondering how he was going to explain that they were going to be stuck in the Cairo airport for another thirteen hours because the flight path of their original plane had been interrupted by a raging blizzard.

"You're _joking_," Tea groaned, flopping back in an uncomfortable chair as Yugi apologetically explained the situation. "By the time we make it home, Christmas'll be practically _over_ already!"

"Aww, I was getting used to a sunny winter," Serenity said morosely, looking out of the window at the blazing Egyptian afternoon.

"Could we call Rishid back and crash at the Ishtars' place a little longer?" Tristan asked, but Yugi shook his head.

"They're not in Cairo," he reminded his friend. "And Rishid dropped us off four hours ago. By the time he gets back, picks us up and gets us back to the Ishtars', we'll have to come back." He started digging in his bag.

"Well, it rather looks like we'll be camping here for the night," Bakura observed. Joey groaned aloud and thumped his head off of his knees.

"Times like this it'd actually be a _good_ thing that jerk Kaiba was here," he grumbled. "Might be able to get Mokuba to bug him into givin' us a lift on one a' his jets. Then he'd fly around the blizzard. Or pay it to stop." Everyone burst out laughing at that, growing tensions released by a moment of mirth.

"Still, Christmas Eve at the _airport_…" Serenity groaned, prompting her brother to give her a reassuring hug and glare at Tristian in case he was thinking of doing the same thing.

"Well I, for one," Tea said firmly, looking around at all of them and smiling, "couldn't think of better company to spend Christmas with…"

They all nodded, exchanging smiles. What better way to spend Christmas than with your dearest friends? Venue didn't really matter…

The warm silence was broken by a cry of triumph as Yugi found what he was looking for in his bag. He turned around, flourishing the brown shape in triumph.

"Want to kill some time with a game?" he suggested, flipping through his cards.

_I have no idea how good my characterizations are, because my sole experience of YuGiOh are the earliest volumes of the manga, from the pre-card-game days, and YuGiOh Abridged, which is pretty much its own separate canon. Must… not… let… Joey… Nyeh… must… not… let… Tea… Friendship Speech…_

_I do not own YuGiOh, nor YuGiOh Abridged, which is property of LittleKuriboh, copyright be damned._


	4. Harry Potter: Milk and Cookies

**Day: **04

**Fandom: **Harry Potter- an orphaned and abused eleven-year-old is told that not only is he a wizard, but an immensely famous wizard who somehow defeated the most evil wizard to ever exist ever as a baby. Spends seven years trying to have as normal a high-school life as is possible at a school of magic and fails epically every year.

**Themes(s): **Milk and Cookies

**Words: **200

**Warnings: **Gratuitous cruelty to magical cookies.

"I'm not sure I can eat this," Harry said, clutching his glass of milk. Hermione also looked nauseated.

"I know that look," Ron said warningly to Hermione. "Don't get out the Spew badges again. This is different, they're like… Chocolate Frogs!"

"S.P.E.W.," Hermione said automatically, "and Chocolate Frogs don't _smile_ at you!"

"Oh, c'mon…" Ron groaned, already mopping up crumbs. He glanced at Harry again, and grinned evilly. "Well, then, I'll tell Ginny you didn't want her cookies…"

"Ginny made these?" Harry said quickly. Ron nodded, allowing himself the brotherly pleasure of tormenting his little sister's boyfriend. Harry was his best friend, and by general agreement of the Weasley males, that while of course no man on the planet was worth Ginny, Harry was as close as it got…

But that didn't invalidate Ron's right to torment him sometimes.

"Yep," he confirmed. "Spent _ages_ on the icing, too…"

After a long moment of internal struggle, Harry picked up his gingerbread man and, ignoring its struggles, dunked it in his milk and bit its head off.

"… Ron, you can have mine," Hermione said weakly, watching the little arms begin to flail distressingly.

"Sweet!" Ron beamed, pouncing on the free cookie.

_I don't think I could eat a Chocolate Frog, myself. Too squicky._

_I wonder if I could get away with doing that, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__….? (And given how fatal Melvin's hugs are, I wonder what would happen if he caught somebody under the mistletoe… *hears plunnies revving chainsaws*)_

_Yeah, __**Lisa Telramor**__, there's been absolute tons and it's bizarre. We're not used to snow, aside from about a foot at the beginning of January. Freezing rain, we can handle, but getting buried under snow… not so much. I'm sure you'll have at least heard of this one, eh? XD I've read all through the manga, and I can't decide if the original run or Millennium World are my favourites… but Abridged is my favourite of all XDXD_

_I do not own Harry Potter. I may like to daydream and scribble random ideas in cafes in Edinburgh, but unfortunately that does not make me JK Rowling._


	5. InuYasha: Tradition

**Day: **05

**Fandom: **InuYasha

**Themes(s): **Tradition

**Words: **298

**Warnings: **Excessive use of the excuse "it's traditional".

"...chimney?" Rin asked, exchanging looks with Shipp. Kagome crossed her arms, regretting trying to explain Christmas to the others. It didn't really make it to Japan until recent years, she knew, so there were many, many aspects of it that made very little sense in the fifteenth century, not least almost anything to do with Santa.

"It's… like that," she said, indicating where the smoke from the fire in the middle of her hut.

"Why would "Santa" want to land on the fire?" Shippo said dubiously. "It's got to hurt…"

"Never mind," Kagome said, shaking her head. "It's just… a story. It's traditional. Really, people give presents to each other. To their friends and family. In Japan, you give presents to the people you love most, but I think in the West you give presents to pretty much everyone you know…"

"Why?" Rin asked curiously. "It must be hard to get presents for everybody…"

"Yeah, but I think… it's to thank them for… being together, or something." Kagome shrugged. "It's traditional."

"It sounds lovely," Sango commented. "It encourages people to spend the coldest days with the people that they love…" she hugged her brother tightly. He grinned sheepishly, always a little embarrassed by his sister's clinginess but never, EVER one to throw it off. Miroku was looking out of the window thoughtfully.

"So it's traditional for a white-haired man dressed in red to appear through the roof and dispense gifts?" He asked. Kagome nodded, though she felt a little suspicious of Miroku's thoughtful tone. "…Why?"

"Hi!" InuYasha said as he dropped through the roof, landing next to the fire and putting an already skinned and cleaned (Kagome was very particular about him doing this before he brought anything back) pair of rabbits over the fire. "What's going on?"

_Much as I love his manga, I don't really want InuYasha to turn up in my house on Christmas Eve… XD_

_Gingie popped up in my head too, __**Lisa Telramor…**__ I felt very cruel… Wizards are generally weird, though, aren't they? XD I think they just like watching each other's faces when a friend gets an earwax one… XDXD_

_It's on the list, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__… though when it will appear, even I don't know… ;) A mere ocean cannot separate craziness! 3_

_Happy Birthday, __**JTR-san!**__ And I think that only Harry would get the approval of all the massed Weasley males… of course Molly loves him already XD_

_I do not own InuYasha, because if I did, KAGURA WOULD LIVE, DAMMIT. As it is, Takahashi Rumiko-sensei says no._


	6. Battle Royale: Eggnog

**Day: **06

**Fandom: **Battle Royale- in a dystopian future Japan, every year a class of fifteen-year-olds are stranded on a deserted island, given weapons, and left to fight to the death until only one remains. This carnage is actually filmed and broadcast, in order to make the populace frightened and paranoid. (This fic is an ending spoiler, set firmly after the end of the story, when Shuuya and Noriko break the Game by both escaping alive to America…)

**Themes(s): **Eggnog

**Words: **336

**Warnings: **Vague angstiness, which kinda comes with the fandom.

"Here we go!" Shuuya said brightly, as he stepped out of the store with a bag of small groceries in his arms, grinning in his usual upbeat way at Noriko despite the small size of the bag and the fact that it had probably cost all of the day's earnings. Even though he was only speaking to Nori, he spoke in English. The longer they lived in America, and the more English they learned, the less they spoke Japanese, the language of the country that abandoned them. They did not want to be associated with Japan any more than it, they were sure, wanted anything to do with them.

"What flavours of ra- pot noodle did you get?" she asked, peeking into the bag. Shuu held up a finger, winking.

"Wait … I got us a treat!" he said, digging in the bag. "Look!" He showed her a white carton. Nori, who still wasn't so good at reading English, squinted at the characters.

"E… eggeno…" she muttered, brow furrowed in concentration. Shuu tried very hard not to laugh and failed.

"It's called eggnog," he supplied. "It's a drink. They had a lot of it and a lot of people were buying it, so I think it must be a big thing at Christmas and I… um, picked some up. Want to try it?"

"Okay," Nori said, opening the carton and taking a drink. She smiled. "It's good!"

"Can I try?" Shuu asked, taking the carton when she handed it over and taking a swig, which he nearly spat out. "Erm… here, it's a present for you. Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Shuu," Nori said, laughing, before standing on her tiptoes to kiss him. He tasted of eggnog, his lips still warm from being inside the shop.

They didn't have a lot. They didn't even have the certainty of a place to sleep that night, or food to eat. But they had each other, and they had a chance. And it worked. It was enough, and it worked.

…_I've only ever read the manga, so I don't know how faithful Shuu and Nori's fate is to the original novel or the movie. But I like to think of them drifting across America, making it day to day, every day that they live a defeat of the Game…_

_It's the middle of winter at the end of the fifteenth century, __**Lisa Telramor…**__ fresh meat probably looks pretty good XD_

_I don't think InuYasha would give you his Tessaiga, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__, and that's as "mass destruction" as it gets XD_

_InuYasha definitely has epic bad timing, __**Kitty-chan**__ XD_

_Glad you like 'em, __**KageNoNeko**__! And yes, 4Kids' endless supply of fail is a boundless source of amusement XDXDXD_

_Battle Royale does not belong to me, because if it did… it probably wouldn't exist, because I'm not as twisted as Koushun Takami._


	7. The Host: Christmas Program

**Day: **07

**Fandom: **The Host- humanity are possessed en masse by aliens called "souls", who physically join themselves to a victim's brain and nervous system and take over their consciousness, replacing whole species, while causing the original victim's consciousness to vanish forever. But humanity aren't quite like any species they've taken over before, and some of their victims don't vanish so easily.

**Themes(s): **Christmas Program

**Words: **209

**Warnings: **References to a life without TV, even saccharine Christmas specials.

"There's nothing on!" Mel complained, switching off the television and chucking the remote away. Jeb caught it out of the air.

"Mel, it took us long enough to get our hands on a tv and get it tuned up," he said amiably. "Don't break the magic wand. There may only be worm tv on, but hey, know your enemy, right?"

"I was enjoying that," Wanda muttered. As much as she loved living with the humans, with Mel and Jamie and Jared and Ian, sometimes she missed the peacefulness of her own kind, and the television had been a good way to reconnect without the deception necessary to actually go into a town and interact with other souls. Unfortunately, Ian wasn't around to bully the remote off anyone for her, and most people barely needed to raise their arm to hold the remote out of her reach.

"What was so wrong with it?" Jamie wanted to know. Mel scowled.

"It's all so…" she waved her hand irritably. "So sappy, and loving, and righteous, and saccharine…"

Jamie blinked. "But haven't Christmas specials always been like that?" he wanted to know. Jeb burst out laughing. Even Wanda wanted to giggle, though she had to hide it; even Mel was bigger than her.

_I actually really liked this novel. I think the Hosts would come out in about five minutes in Scotland, though, for two reasons: 1) Dr Who (We all know that when the aliens come, they'll come subtly, and we have a high proportion of "crazies") and 2) Glasgow (The second we witness an Old Firm game with no violence, we will know that the end has come) XD_

_Never heard of Hunger Games, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__… and if you want to take over the world, nothing better than good ol'-fashioned mind control!_

_Battle Royale is fascinating, __**KageNoNeko**__, but it is pretty hard going, psychologically and visually, so if you're squicked out too much by heavy gore or psychological horror, it might not be for you…_

_The Host does not belong to me, but Stephanie Meyer. I wish I did belong to me, because we could do with four books about this rather than fairy vampires._


	8. Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Ice and Ornaments

**Day: **08

**Fandom: **Yuu Yuu Hakusho- a teenaged delinquent is killed saving a child's life, and a confused spirit world gives him a second chance if he agrees to become their detective, tracking down spirit and demonic criminals. Eventually, he just beats up any demon around. A _lot_.

**Themes(s): **Ice & Ornaments

**Words: **307

**Warnings: **Yusuke's take on Christmas and an angel of death at a Christmas party.

"And the purpose of all this is…?" Hiei asked, despite appearing to be deeply asleep on the windowsill. Kurama flicked out some seeds, which had bloomed into full holly sprigs, berries and all, by the time they reached their decorative perches. At the tap of his foot, a full Christmas tree grew out of apparently nowhere in one corner.

"Giving, peace, goodwill, being with the people you love…" he ticked off. Hiei opened his two normal eyes and looked blankly at him, like he was speaking a foreign language. Yusuke snorted, cracking open a can.

"You mean getting stuff, getting stuffed and getting pissed," he ticked off, making a spirited start on the latter. "It's some old western festival that got all sanctified. C'mon, it's a winter festival; sing, drink, eat, set fire to something, try to ignore the fact that it's dark all the time and you're freezing your ass off."

"Watch your mouth," Kuwabara hissed, gesturing to where Yukina was looking thoughtfully at the decorations, before reaching to the tree and brushing her hands over it.

In her wake, decorations appeared, perfect, intricately formed decorations of pure ice.

"Oh, wow, Yukina!" Keiko said happily, coming through from the kitchen with a bowl of bread rolls. "Those are so beautiful!"

"When's the real food coming?" Yusuke asked. Keiko nonchalantly thwapped him on the head as she passed, heading back to the kitchen for, presumably, real food.

"This place looks great, you guys!" Botan said, pointedly looking at Yukina and Kurama rather than Hiei, who had returned to his nap, and Yusuke and Kuwabara, the former passing another beer to the latter. Atsuko peered curiously at the tree.

"Won't these melt soon, though?" she asked, prodding one of the crystalline figures. Yukina smiled reassuringly.

"_My_ ice won't," she promised. "Do you want a sculpture out front, too?"

_Fighting manga aren't normally my thing, but I really liked the initial premised of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. If only they'd stuck with it. I don't have much patience with the storylines or the art from after about the end of the Dark Tournament._

_You scare me, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__… in a good way XD Yaaaaaas, I'm not the only person who actually read The Host! :D_

_Again, I highly endorse The Host, __**KageNoNeko.**__ Well, I love of all of the fandoms I use here, obviously, but The Host is a genuinely good novel. Makes you wonder what the shit happened with Twilight._

_While I agree that most Mary-Sues are better developed than Bella Swan, __**Lisa Telramor**__, The Host is something else entirely. It's like all of the plot and characterization that was missing from Twilight was all siphoned off of the floor and into here._

_Yoshihiro Togashi owns Yuu Yuu Hakusho, not me. So please, don't use Kuwabara's interdimensional sword to break the fourth wall and kick my ass. You don't need a Dark Tournament champion to do that._


	9. Legend of Zelda: Mistletoe

**Day: **09

**Fandom: **Legend of Zelda- the Hero of Time is reborn endlessly throughout the timeline of the Kingdom of Hyrule, whenever the evil Gandondorf once more attempts to rise to power. Funnily enough, his horse is generally reborn with him, which is really kinda sweet. Unfortunately, Tingle often is too.

**Themes(s): **Mistletoe

**Words: **325

**Warnings: **Navi talking.

The sky was vast and dark at the depth of winter. The sun barely peeked over the horizon each day before fleeing the shadows that held dominion for this part of the year. So, like humanoids across the multiverse, the people of Hyrule responded with fires and music; driving away the darkness with all of the light and darkness they could muster. And oh, they were so very successful; in the middle of Castle Town, with the Winter Festival blazing, whenever Link looked up he saw nothing but light.

He spotted something else as he glanced up, passing under an archway; some sort of small plant dangling towards him. Navi floated up towards it.

"Hey, look!" she said. Link instinctively reached for his sword. Though the little fairy guardian was no more than a ball of light with wings, he got the distinct impression that she was frowning at him.

"Not _everything_ is dangerous, you know," she chastised him. "Not everything wants to kill you."

Link gave her a look that suggested that this was a new concept. Admittedly, this wasn't an entirely unfounded belief; significantly more innocent-looking plant had tried to kill him before.

"It's called mistletoe, and it's not dangerous so long as you don't eat the berries," Navi explained. "But it does have special properties… Why not bring the Princess down this way? You are escorting her down to the festival, aren't you?"

A faint expression of panic crossed Link's face as he looked up frantically, trying to see a clock or the stars to discern the time and, seeing neither, he turned and took off towards the Castle full tilt. Navi tutted, and then flitted up, trying to dislodge the mistletoe. She'd have to move it to whatever route Link decided to take to escort the Princess down to the festival, since she doubted he'd come back through this archway now.

That boy. You had to do everything for him sometimes.

_Does it show that I've only ever played _Ocarina of Time_, _Twilight Princess_ and bits of _Majora's Mask? _XDXDXD *Is very disappointed that she didn't find a way to work Wolf Link into this*_

_I adore Kurama, __**Lisa Telramor**__*fangirls like crazy* and I find Hiei bizarrely cute in a mildly psychotic way XD I definitely think the manga could have used more character exploration and less endless tournaments -_- _

_Never saw the anime myself, __**KageNoNeko**__, but yeah, Sailor Moon and Yuu Yuu Hakusho is a pretty weird combination XD_

_Nintendo own Legend of Zelda, I don't, please don't set the Like Likes on me…_


	10. Pokemon: Christmas Shopping

**Day: **10

**Fandom: **Pokémon- in a world populated by powerful creatures with incredible powers, children leave home young to travel the world and capture and train said creatures in order to battle them against one another for money and prestige. (It's less sinister than it sounds, really.) Out of the three main verses- anime, manga and original games- this is set in my personal verse based on the games.

**Themes(s): **Christmas shopping

**Words: **225

**Warnings: **Giant bears on fire intimidating small traders on the behalf of young girls.

Lyra was on a major shopping spree. She didn't need too much of a reason to do this, but the fact that it was Christmas helped.

"Hey, these are pretty rare," she commented, picking up some special pokéballs. "How much are these?"

"For you, pretty girl, only 2,000!" The enthusiastic trader said, slapping his fan against the table. Lyra nodded thoughtfully, and then turned to her Pokémon. "Typhlosion, have you _ever_ heard of a pokéball that expensive?"

"Phloooo," Typhlosion snorted, turning away from the display of dolls that she was sniffing and looming over the pokéball stand, her fire igniting a little. The trader paled visibly.

"…b-b-_but_ for a powerful trainer such as you clearly are, young lady, only 500 each!" he babbled nervously. "And here- buy three, get a fourth free!"

"That's so sweet!" Lyra said, smiling nicely. "Thank you. Kris'll love these!" she commented to Typhlosion as she walked away, before spotting a display of custom sweets. "Oooh! Those are _perfect_ for Leaf, she's got a sweet tooth as bad as Gold…"

"Each box is six thou- uh, one thousand… um…" the trader said, carefully revising her prices as Typhlosion leaned down over her trainer's shoulder.

Lyra loved shopping, and she loved it even more now that Pokémon were allowed to walk outside of their pokéballs in towns. It was so much fun!

_Religion doesn't really seem to exist on planet Pokémon, aside from that creepy building in Hearthome, but Ash and pals met Santa in one episode, so yeah… let's go with that. (Come to that, I think the first trader that I wrote might have wandered across the verses from anime to games… remember the guy who sold James the Magikarp?)_

_Gotta love the Zelda games, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__… the wibbly-wobbly timeline and multiple incarnations thing leaves endless room for plunnies XD_

_I always wanted to stab Navi myself, __**Lisa Telramor**__, but not as badly as I wanted to stab Tingle…_

_Thought I'd create some flashbacks, __**Roseanni**__ XD glad you like 'em!_

_Seems like everybody's played _Ocarina of Time,_**KageNoNeko**__… which is good, because it's an incredible game _:D

_Nintendo owns Pokémon, and I own a full Pokédex in HeartGold._


	11. Star Wars: Family and Loneliness

**Day: **11

**Fandom: **Star Wars- a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away which nevertheless is somehow very futuristic and full of humans, an order known as Jedi trained to develop incredible powers, which they used to keep peace in the galaxy until they were all killed by a clone army after a sequence of events that vaguely parodies both the events of the Iraq War and the rise of Nazi Germany.

**Themes(s): **Family and Loneliness

**Words: **185

**Warnings: **A complete lack of knowledge of the Expanded Universe, which may or may not be evident.

On a city-planet, seasons were not particularly noticeable. Still, Coruscant must have once had seasons, because the calendar featured festivals and holidays that referred to it.

Winter was not something that Anakin Skywalker had ever heard of, so he didn't realize that he was spending his first one at the Jedi Academy until one of the other pupils mentioned a winter festival. The Temple did not celebrate holidays, having none of their own and not holding to any one culture or religion, but walking the streets of Coruscant the Padawan saw some shops mention that they were closing early on a certain day due to the holidays, and heard people talking about parties and visits.

He heard that it was traditional, for reasons long forgotten, to spend the holiday with family.

It was obvious that such holidays would never be celebrated by the Jedi; a Jedi had no family, only his brethren at the Temple. Anakin tried to tell himself that; he had no family.

But as Anakin Skywalker, he did. And whenever he came across such holidays and festivals, forgetting that only got harder.

_Yeah, I only ever watched the movies… I have no idea what Coruscant's year cycle or holidays are like, and I'm hoping you don't either XD Still, movies III-VI are among my most beloved movies of all time. Parts of II kinda put me off, and I… the less said about that the better, mmm?_

_Gaaaah… forgive me for being a tube and posting the wrong chapter. Thanks to those who gave me a heads-up -_-;_

_I do not own Star Wars. This should be self-evident. So please don't set the Lucasfilm super-lawyers on me._


	12. Imadoki: Filled Up Flights

**Day: **12

**Fandom: **Imadoki- scholarship girl Tanpopo gets into the prestigious Meio Academy, which normally only the children of the richest families in Tokyo attend. Despite real plants being banned on school grounds, she starts up a gardening club and gets the immensely rich (even by Meio standards), popular and important Kugyo Koki on her side, eventually forming an eclectic group who nevertheless become close friends.

**Themes(s): **Filled Up Flights

**Words: **353

**Warnings: **Flippy being Flippy.

"… you must be kidding, Tsukiko," Arisa complained. "You're telling me _nobody's_ private jet is free?"

"Flippy's parents took their off to Paris already," Tsukiko sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose, "and I told my mother to take mine since I assumed that we'd be taking Koki's plane…"

"So did I," Koki said, wandering over to the girls with Flippy in tow, plugged into his laptop. "Unfortunately, Yoji missed the memo and took off to London to visit Erika. You don't have a jet, do you, Arisa?"

"Are you kidding?" Arisa said, shifting her son from one hip to the other as the toddler began to whimper at the noise and fuss of the crowded airport. "Daddy's work doesn't extend outside of the city much. Seriously, what is the point of hanging out with all you posh kids if nobody has a jet on hand?"

"And all of the commercial flights are filled up, which leaves us with only one option," Flippy said seriously, snapping his laptop closed and looking at them all. They waited, somewhat apprehensively, for his idea.

"Tsukiko!" he said, snapping his fingers at her bag. "Your towel, please! And Arisa, I need all of the fake tan you can give me! With my water gun, I'll hijack an airplane, and _that's_ how we'll get to Hokkaido!"

"… or we could take a bullet train," Tsukiko said, snatching Flippy's laptop to look up train times, "and _that's_ how we'll get to Hokkaido. It'll take us a little longer than we thought, but we'll still have a few days before Christmas…"

"I can't wait to spend Christmas with Tanpopo!" Arisa said brightly, jiggling her son and cooing a little. "It'll be fun, won't it? We haven't seen her for _ages_, have we? No we haven't!"

"We'll get the premium tickets- and we'll pay for these on the Kugyo account," Tsukiko called to Koki, who didn't hear her because he was busy pulling Flippy into an armlock before he could pull out his disturbingly realistic-looking water gun in the middle of a crowded airport- or worse, being Flippy, a real one.

_Can you tell how much I love Flippy? XDXDXD I'm trying to think if Arisa ever canonically named her baby…_

_I'd LOVE to have a Charizard following me around, __**Lisa Telramor!**__ That'd be AWESOME! Though come to it, ingame, I wonder why nobody ever bats an eye when I walk around with Ho-oh flying behind me…_

_Tingle just freaks me out, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__… I'm getting white, but I'm already upset a) at the stupid names that they've given the starters and b) that they've dropped the having-a-Pokémon-walk-behind-you aspect already. THAT WAS AWESOME! I fear I'm going to have roughly the same reaction I did to Diamond, ie not actually caring._

_Imadoki is not my property, but Watase Yuu-sensei's- so none of the crazy-rich Kugyo's super-lawyers, please._


	13. YuGiOh Abridged: Advent Calendar

**Day: **13

**Fandom: **YuGiOh Abridged- A British nerd with an increasing vocal range reinterprets the plot of the entire YuGiOh anime to the point where it becomes its own continuity, including new plotlines such as the quest to determine Pegasus' sexuality, Mako Tsunami's troubled marriage to the ocean and Melvin's plot with 4kids to destroy the fourth wall and end YuGiOh Abridged forever.

**Themes(s): **Advent Calendar

**Words: **304

**Warnings: **Very little coherency.

"So what're we doing here?" Yugi asked, looking around the generically-decorated, Christmassy living room that they were all seated in. Ishizu's necklace glowed.

"We have been summoned here," she said solemnly in her disturbingly deep voice, "by a Scottish writing geek who has had no access to her computer for four days and needs to write some quick oneshots to catch up with her Advent Calendar fanfiction."

"Advent Calendar?" Tristian said brightly. "Yay! Do we get chocolate?"

"Oh, and I suppose she thinks _we're_ a cheap source of quick comedy?" Florence growled. Everyone jumped.

"Nyeh! Fluffy!" Joey yelped, ignoring Florence's indignant muttering about not taking that from a furry. "When did you get here?"

"Bakura was here for ages," Mokuba supplied. "He only just changed because-"

"Shut up, Mokuba," about half the room chorused automatically. In a huff, the kid returned to Facebook-stalking his brother, who was posting his profits every five seconds, and replying to messages from Rebecca asking if she wanted to come play with Teddy, because he was hungry for sou- erm, he wanted to play with Mokuba.

Yami popped out in his convenient ghost-body to have a look around. "Yugi, aren't we missing people?" he pointed out. "Where's Duke?"

"Good question," Yugi said, looking around. "I don't hear his theme music…"

"He wanted to build a snowman of himself," Serenity said, "but he's so hot that it keeps melting."

"What the heck did you just say?" Joey asked. Tea suddenly jumped up, dragging Yugi with her, despite his struggles and desperate cries that he'd left his deck behind and he'd die without it.

"I only just noticed the mistletoe!" she said, pointing to the door. "Quick, change into your sexy alter ego so we can get-" she stopped dead. Someone was already under the mistletoe.

"Who wants their Christmas _**HUG?**_"

_Did I just write a fanfic of a fandub? Well, the general consensus after the YGO oneshot was that this is basically its own canon. Which I had watched to death and laughed my ass off at before I ever got near the actual manga, anime or trading cards XD_

_YuGiOh is not mine. It's not LittleKuriboh's either, technically, but let's not get nitpicky, because it's an unjust world that doesn't pay him to make this genius._


	14. Magic Kaito: Santa and Flu

**Day: **14

**Fandom: **Magic Kaito- sixteen-year-old Kuroba Kaito discovers that his late father was the magical gentleman thief, Kaitou Kid. He also discovers that his father was murdered by criminals who escaped the law… but they can't escape one who's not only outside the laws of man, but also of common sense and basic physics.

**Themes(s): **Flu, Santa.

**Words: **548

**Warnings: **Flu germs and contagious insanity.

Aoko rubbed her sore eyes. She really shouldn't stay up so late reading, especially on Christmas Eve, but it was such a good book and she was _almost done…_

She yelped in surprise as pink smoke billowed from her radiator, accompanied, bizarrely, by the tinkling of bells. Coughing and waving at the smoke, she growled as she managed to focus at the figure that had appeared in the middle of it.

"You couldn't get a fireplace installed, could you?" Kid asked pleasantly, bowing slightly. "Only central heating is a devil to get through…"

"You're not telling me you got in through the… what on earth are you wearing?" Aoko asked, gaping as questions pushed aside questions. The longer she looked, the more they piled up.

Kid was dressed… festively. His usual flowing white cape had been replaced by some heavy red material, trimmed with white. He was wearing a red top hat with a wreath around it and a white bobble on top. He was still wearing a sharp suit, but it was red, the hem and buttons trimmed with more white fur, and his tie was replaced by some kind of white furry muffler. His gloves were green, and- yes, he was wearing black boots. He was also carrying a large sack over his shoulder.

"What… are… you… doing?" she asked slowly as he lowered the sack with a _thump_ and withdrew some kind of scroll from one pocket.

"Fear not, Nakamori-san, you are _definitely_ on the nice list," he purred. "Though there are advantages to knowing who all the naughty girls are…" he pulled out another list, and his face went carefully blank. Aoko thought she saw Akako-chan's name near the top of the second list. "Anyway, let us see what the sack has for _you_…"

"Why are you… what… this is… where's Santa?" Aoko blurted, feeling it was probably the least sane question and thus the one that the thief was most likely to understand. He glanced up at her- still wearing the monocle, though the tag appeared to have a sprig of mistletoe on it- and grinned.

"Oh, I'm afraid that the big man has come down with a bad case of flu," he sighed. "However, all is well; he deemed me a suitable replacement so long as I reversed my thinking. I'm supposed to _give_ the shinies, not take them." He coughed delicately. "In his words. But as I'm very good at getting in and out unnoticed, am completely nocturnal and have no known regard for the laws of physics or possibility, I am of course the logical replacement!" He began pulling a long, thin package out of the sack, which seemed to be longer than could possibly fit in the sack. The Kid being a man who was known to carry enough concealed doves to quarter his weight if he released them before stepping on the scales, he was completely unfazed. He did look a little suspiciously at the package, though.

"Well, it says "Nakamori Aoko" on it…" he said uncertainly. Aoko snatched it, grinning triumphantly and glancing at the clock.

"It's past midnight," she said, grinning and ripping the wrapping paper off of a shiny new mop with a malicious grin, "and I got _exactly _what I wanted."

Kid _eeped_ nervously.

_He would do it, too._

_This is the only one I planned ahead; Magic Kaito on day 14 of the twelfth month, using prompts 14 and 12. Thanks for the suggestion, __**KSA Key-chan**__!_

_I do not own Magic Kaito, as it's property of Aoyama Gosho. If I did own it, I promise you, there'd be more than twenty-seven chapters._


	15. Chobits: Date

**Day: **15

**Fandom: **Chobits- in an indeterminate future, persocoms, or humanoid computers, are incredibly popular and common, and only the pisspoor can't afford one. Enter starving student Hideki, who finds one in the trash that initially appears to be broken but may turn out to be the most powerful computer in the world, one of the legendary "Chobits" which are actually true AIs…

**Themes(s): **Date

**Words: **355

**Warnings: **Sentient computers taking over the world via glomping.

"…_so you and your date might want to wrap up warm, because Christmas Day is going to plummet to temperatures of…_"

"Welcome home, Hideki!" Chi said, smiling at the student as the door opened, right before Plum tackled him, dragging Kotoko with her. She waited patiently for him to disentangle him from the overenthusiastic laptops before hugging him, since Kotoko complained endlessly about being flattened.

"Hi, Chi," he said, smiling warmly as always and hugging her back. "Did you have a good day?"

"Yes! Chi made money and got shopping!" she said, indicating the fridge, which had more food in it than it had in a while. "Chi has a question, though."

"Fire away," Hideki said as he sat down, tucking his books away. She knew that this was an invitation to ask; she had questions almost every day.

"What is a Christmas day?" she asked, kneeling down next to him as Plum and a reluctant Kotoko started ferrying other things out of Hideki's bag. "Many people on the television are talking about it."

"It's a holiday," Hideki said, scratching his head like he always did when he was having a hard time explaining. "It's a special day in Western society… It's when you give presents to people that you care about… it's kind of been picked up here as a romantic day, to be with the person you love…"

"To go on a date!" Chi said enthusiastically. "The man on the television also talked about dates, and Chi knows that a date is when you go somewhere with someone that you like very much!"

"That's right!" Hideki said, patting her head. "It's the day after tomorrow…"

"Does Hideki want to go on a date with Chi on the Christmas Day?" Chi asked. Hideki grinned wider.

"Of course!" he said. "Then I can give you your present…"

"Oh no!" Chi gasped, leaping to her feet. "Chi has no present for Hideki! Chi will not go far!" she called the last sentence over her shoulder as she fled out of the apartment, counting the money still in her purse. She still had so much to learn!

_To be honest, I think having a humanoid computer would drive me nuts. Computer apocalypse paranoia aside, how can you watch AMVs if you have to go boot everyone else off the TV and hook your computer up? Where do you plug in earphones if you want to listen to music without waking up the rest of your house? How do you reread, edit and generally write fanfic? I don't think practicality was the top priority in the design of persocoms. (Actually, having read the series, I know that the original reason for designing persocoms wasn't really anything to do with their computer capabilities, but… yeah.)_

_Anyway, forgive me for vanishing from the face of the earth and then ficdumping. I got a bloody virus that affected my internet connection, which meant that I could do anything I liked on my computer provided I didn't try to go online. I could go online if I stole my brother's laptop, but he point-blank refused to let me transfer anything from my computer to his in case I transferred anything… Given how much hacking he does and how much he downloads, I was more worried about transferring viruses to my computer XDXDXD But now it's fixed! I think._

_I do not own Chobits. Chobits is the intellectual property of the collective known as CLAMP, unless it's all written by an AI. Not sure how copyright laws apply to a computer's creations._


	16. Discworld: Holly and Cold

**Day: **16

**Fandom: **Discworld- an unexplainable but incredible fantasy-comedy series by Sir Terry Pratchett, most novels revolving around one of several main groups of characters on a world known as the Disc, a flat world on the shoulders of four elephants on the back of the great space turtle A'Tuin, in a universe which has fallen off of the end of the reality curve. Heavy use of wordplay, satire and parody.

**Themes(s): **Cold & Holly

**Words: **293

**Warnings: **Nanny Ogg planning a party. Also, don't worry; Granny aten't dead.

"Cor, it ain't half chilly in 'ere," Nanny Ogg said, taking a pull from her hip-flask to warm herself up.

"It's the stone walls," Verence said morosely. "They keep the place cool in the summer, but the problem is that they keep the place cool in the winter too."

"What brings you here, Nanny?" Magrat asked politely, hoping that the more Nanny talked, the less she'd drink. "Isn't your family Hogswatch party tonight!"

"Yep!" Nanny said brightly, openly stealing some of the decorative holly that was adorning the Castle and secreting it away in some unmentionable storage space. "But I wanted to invite y'worships. After all, you rule the kingdom and all," she added, almost as an afterthought.*

Magrat was a little hesitant, feeling somehow that it wasn't on for a Queen to party with the commoners, but as much as she was a Queen, she was a witch, and at the dark, cold end of the year, with all of the year's shadows and occult debris piling up, she also knew the importance of light and noise, and Nanny's party provided both in spades.

She looked up as something hooted softly. A large owl was perched on one of the tall windows, pecking at the shadow under the sill, which seemed to be shrinking slightly. It watched Magrat in a familiarly piercing fashion for a moment, before flying back out of the window.

"You're invited too, Esme!" Nanny yelled as the owl flew away.

*_The Ogg clan was vast and formidable, and Nanny was their undisputed matriarch. Making up a sizeable majority of the kingdom of Lancre, the Oggs would come to their Nanny's aid before their King's. Verence knew this, and just counted himself lucky that Nanny seemed to like him._

_I have an insane amount of love for this series, especially the witches (and especially especially Tiffany Aching and the inimitable Feegles), but I don't know if I did it justice… (and yes, I did have to do a footnote. It's a Discworld fic! XD)_

_My computer's all better now, __**Lisa Telramor**__, so back to writing! :D I only just read the end of _Imadoki_ recently, and I love it _ _ and yeah, YGO Abridged is brilliant, better than the actual anime! XD Yeah, Chobits is a bit heavy for kids… I hate it when libraries put manga in the children's section solely because it's visual. I once found a few volumes of _Battle Royale_ in there… while I love _BR_, it is not something that I think small kids should ever, ever, ever be exposed to…_

_Hi, __**Starburstia**__! Kaito FTW indeed! :D_

_Santa Kid's visit to all of the characters, __**Kitty-chan**__… I'm not sure if that's an awesome or disturbing idea XDXD Awww, and don't be so pessimistic! Chi is cute, but she's no substitute for the real thing- at least, we like to think so ;) _

_Actually, __**KageNoNeko**__, if you mean the Magikarp seller in the Pokémon Centre outside of Mt Moon, he's been there since Red and Blue, long before the anime… the sad thing is, I used to buy the Magikarp anyway, since it would be ages until you got an Old Rod and I reeeeaaaaally wanted a Gyarados XDXDXDXD Glad you're done with finals! I hope you did well! Hey, if Youtube tries to boot one of my videos again despite me claiming fair use, can I call you? XDXD Oh, you really, REALLY have to watch episodes IV-VI of _Star Wars_, because they are significantly better than the prequels. Well, III was really good, way better than most of II (and the less said about I the better), but you haven't seen a good movie until you've seen the Holy Trilogy. Of course, having already seen the prequels, you've already had the best plot twists spoiled to all hell, but still, they're AWESOME _ _ (can you tell I'm a fangirl? XD) _Imadoki_ is well worth the read, it's absolutely adorable and the characters are charmingly eclectic :D YGO Abridged is also well worth watching through, mainly because it's bloody genius, but it has fifty episodes now so it will take a while XD (also, _DarkSideIncorporated'_s YGO GX Abridged is well worth a look too; it's a similar style of humour, but with two voice actors and even weirder base material XD) Again, massively recommend _Magic Kaito_, but that's because I'm a Kaito fangirl :D _Chobits_ is also good, but I haven't read _Angelic Layer, _though at one point during _Chobits_ it's mentioned that the creator of the Persocoms also created the Angelic Layer dolls._

_I would never dare to complain ownership of the Discworld series, not least because a good number of the books were written before I was born. This mad, wonderful world is sole property of Sir Terry Pratchett._


	17. Detective Conan: Skiing and Snowboarding

**Day: **17

**Fandom: **Detective Conan- teenage detective Shinichi Kudo pokes his nose into something he shouldn't and is given an experimental poison. It doesn't kill him, but it does cause him to physically revert to a six-year-old. Under the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, he continues to solve cases that baffle the Japanese police and starts hunting down the mysterious and deadly Black Organization…

**Themes(s): **Skiing/Snowboarding and (as a present to Ichi) Yaoi!

**Words: **293

**Warnings: **Kaito is back, and still causing havoc with a different paramour.

Even with darkened goggles, the glare of the sun off the snow was still brilliant, turning the world into a glare with obstacles like trees shimmering in and out of existence as Shinichi shot past them. He leaned to bank his snowboard enough to go around a particularly large cluster of trees, only to have someone crash into him from the side, clinging to him as the two of them rolled into the snow.

"Pflef!" Shinichi gasped, spitting out snow as he tried to get up, but the person who had hit him grabbed him, pulling him back down into a warm embrace.

"Sssssh," a voice whispered in his ear, giggling slightly. "Just stay down a minute."

A moment later, a figure in blue ski clothes with what appeared to be a garish, neon pink hat skied past, not noticing the two of them lying hidden in the snowdrift, eyes trained further down the slop and mouth growling. "KUUUROOOBAAA!"

"Kaito…" Shinichi said, watching the victim ski away. "What did you do to Hakuba-kun this time?"

"Just the hair, I swear," Kaito chuckled, making Shinichi shiver as his warm breath brushed past his ear. "However, I did it in front of Mori-san, Suzuki-san and Aoko, none of whom could quite contain their amusement, and I think he's rather embarrassed…"

Shinichi sighed heavily. Hakuba was a proud detective, who did not take to humiliation easily. "So… what're you planning now?"

"Not to go down the slope for a while," he whispered. "I'll have to stay out here, until his rage cools… out here, in the cold and the snow…"

"Looking to be warmed up?" Shinichi asked, leaning up to kiss his boyfriend's chilled lips. Before long, despite the snow, both of them were warm again.

_One of Ichi's ten Christmas wishes was a KaiShin fic dedicated to her; well, this isn't a full fic, but Merry Christmas, Ichi!_

_Like all of my fandoms, I highly recommend Terry Pratchett, __**Lisa Telramor**__, but I have to warn you that because of his very… distinct style, his initial novels, _Colour of Magic _and _The Light Fantastic_ can be very difficult to understand and keep track of. My advice to first-time readers is to look up one of the Feegle books (_The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full Of Sky, Wintersmith_ and the latest one,_ I Shall Wear Midnight)_, which are sort of like Discworld Lite; not quite as complex or heavy as some of the other novels, but still displaying all of Pratchett's trademark wit and genius. And they have Feegles, who are too awesome to explain and must be read to be believed :D_

_I do not own Detective Conan. It owns me, mainly because the KaiShin fandom now owns my soul._


	18. Scrubs: Reindeer

**Day: **18

**Fandom: **Scrubs- a comedic drama based around Sacred Heart hospital and the doctors, nurses and surgeons working therein, the main focus being on the dozy aspiring doctor JD and his friends and co-workers. Except for the new Med School series which did away with most of the main cast in favour of new characters, and crashed and burned as a result.

**Themes(s): **Reindeer

**Words: **184

**Warnings: **Some surrealism.

The reindeer bounded across the night sky, sparkles trailing behind them like stars. From the sled behind them, Santa and his helpers threw presents down to fall neatly down the chimneys of good children and land under their trees.

"Thanks for letting me come help, Santa!" JD said brightly, picking up a large present. "Now, who's this for?"

"That's for you, JD," Santa said with a jolly laugh. "For being such a good boy!"

"This is the best Christmas ever!" JD cheered.

"JD? Hey man, wake up!"

Somebody snapped their fingers in front of his face. JD looked down. He was holding a plate of candy canes. "Awww…"

"Dude, you need to pay attention," Turk said. "Now, I gotta sneak some more presents under the tree, so take these to the kids to distract them, okay?" He caught JD's sad expression and rolled his eyes. "You can have one too."

"No problem, Brown Bear!" JD said brightly, going over to hand candy canes to Isabelle and Sam. After all, it wasn't Christmas yet, so there was still time for Santa to call him in!

_Ah, the wonderfully bizarre potential of JD's daydreams. I wanted to involved my favourite characters, but I can't help but feel that Dr Cox and Jordan wouldn't just kill all Christmas cheer, but shove the body in a furnace and steal cleaning supplies from the Janitor to clean up the blood. Or maybe just hire him to carry out the assassination._

_I do not own Scrubs. If I did, that Med School crap would never have happened._


	19. Toy Story: Tree and Sweater

**Day: **19

**Fandom: **Toy Story- a charming trio of movies following the adventures of the toys of a boy named Andy, and confirming what every child always knew; that toys are alive, and they appreciate it if you play nicely with them…

**Themes(s): **Tree and Sweater

**Words: **302

**Warnings: **Spoilers ahoy for Toy Story 3, so if you haven't seen it… what the hell is wrong with you? XD

"Hey, look, this one's for Bonnie!" Dolly said, waving them over to a large box with candy-cane wrapping. "Somebody with plastic fists give it a knock?"

"Hmmm…" Woody rapped his knuckled along the box. "Wait, there's some give here, it's gotta be a plastic window. Might be a baby doll…"

"Oh, that would be just _precious_!" Mrs Potato Head cooed. Her husband looked less enthused.

"We've already adopted six," he said, pointing over to where the three aliens were playing piggy-in-the-middle with one of the peas. "Do you need some stupid big baby?"

"This is great!" Jessie said enthusiastically, climbing a tall, slim box.

"What, the Barbie?" Buzz asked, looking at the box. "We know that's a Barbie, we saw Bonnie's parents wrap it…"

"No, I mean new toys!" Jessie said brightly, leaning over the edge of the box to grin at him. "Andy hadn't gotten new toys for years, remember? Last Christmas, the biggest thing he got was a _sweater_."

"A sweater?" Mr Pricklepants sniffed. "Hardly a fun present for a child…"

"Their kid grew up, remember?" Buttercup reminded him, nudging the stuck-up hedgehog with a hoof. "Maybe he liked the sweater…"

Woody exchanged a glance with Buzz. They'd been living at Bonnie's for several months, but they still couldn't help thinking of Andy as their kid. His name was still written on one of Woody's boots, Bonnie's on the other. Woody looked at that boot, at the name written in neat little letters with a flower instead of a dot above the i.

"Our kid…" Buzz said, shaking his head. He looked at Bonnie's toys- Bonnie's _other_ toys. "Bonnie's our kid now, and she's a good one. Right?"

"Right," Woody said with a smile, dropping his leg. "Hey, Dolly! About Christmas morning… how do you folks normally greet new toys?"

_This is my favourite movie of the year. No competition whatsoever. There was so much in it, and not a single thing wrong with it… I think I loved it more than the little kids who were sitting in the row in front of me XD I was certainly laughing more than they were, and I cried more too…_

_There's a reason Kaito is my favourite character, __**Lisa Telramor…**__ :D Being in work rather than school, my winter break consists of two days: Christmas and Boxing Day. Whereas my cousin is off college for two months. I slightly hate her right now XD_

_Glad you liked it, despite not being a yaoi fan, __**Roseanni**__ ;)_

… _not quite following the gist of your comment, __**KageNoNeko**__, but are you saying you're not a yaoi fan either? XP_

_I don't own Toy Story, much as I wish I did. I do have a Jessie doll somewhere, though. I need to dig her out and hug her._


	20. Fruits Basket: Cooking

**Day: **20

**Fandom: **Fruits Basket- when Tohru Honda is orphaned and ends up living in a tent, she is taken in by the enigmatic and cursed Sohma family, thirteen members of which transform into the twelve animals of the zodiac and the shunned cat when exhausted or hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Sounds like fun, but the curse goes much deeper than that, tightening its chain around their hearts and leaving scars that they fear will never heal…

**Themes(s): **Cooking

**Words: **418

**Warnings: **Yuki attempting to cook.

"Momiji-kun, can you pass me the flour, please?" Tohru asked, adjusting the heat on the stove carefully. "It's in the top-left cupboard."

"I'll get it!" Momiji sang, bouncing across the kitchen like- well, a rabbit- and leaping up onto the counter to reach the top cupboard. At 16, he was still regularly mistaken for a grade-schooler. Just as he grabbed the flour bag, someone grabbed him by the ear and yanked him off the counter.

"Keep your feet off the counter," Kyo said, dropping him and heading past to the fridge. "Even I know that's filthy."

"But of course cats have to keep clean," Yuki snarked, helping the sniffing Momiji back to his feet. "Why don't you go lick your ears, stupid cat?"

"Ah-ah-ah… Kyo-kun!" Tohru said quickly, intending to stave off the inevitable argument, and from there the inevitable fight. It was December, and it would be cold without the screen door. "Ermmm…. Oh! Can you pass me the milk?"

"Eh, sure," Kyo said, grabbing the milk carton and passing it to her, before snatching up the soda can he'd been aiming for. "What are you cooking, anyway?"

"I'm making lots of winter treats!" Tohru said brightly, measuring out some milk. "Some fudge, and some little cakes… oh, and some gingerbread cookies!"

"Gingerbread cookies?" Yuki asked with interest as Momiji bounced back to his feet, fully recovered and proudly offering the flour to Tohru. "I've never had them before… what are they like?"

"Thank you, Momiji-kun!" Tohru said politely, taking the flour, before returning to Yuki's question. "Well… they're a little more tart than regular cookies, but they're also very sweet, and even better, you cut them into little shapes! Most people make gingerbread men, but I thought I'd make all sorts of shapes!"

"Yay! I want a bunny cookie!" Momiji cried, to the surprise of nobody. "Can I keep helping, Tohru?"

"Of course you can, Momiji-kun!" Tohru said, smiling. "Thank you very much!"

"We'll help too, Honda-san," Yuki said politely. Chipper as she always was, somehow Tohru's smile seemed to freeze slightly. Kyo rolled his eyes, and aimed a punch at Yuki's face, which he blocked lazily.

"_I'll_ help," Kyo snarled, pushing the Rat towards the door, "and you… go play with your vegetables or something."

"You can still get vegetables?" Tohru asked curiously. "That's wonderful!"

"Um… yeah," Yuki said, a little confused as Kyo slammed the door behind him, before looking down at the frozen earth. Maybe Honda-san only needed two helpers in the kitchen...

_I adore this manga so much, even if it does make me cry more with every volume. Seriously, for a manga with such a screwball base plot, it goes deeper than anything else I've ever read…_

_Too bad, __**KageNoNeko**__… you miss soooo much cracky fun that way XDXD_

_I don't own Fruits Basket. I am certainly not Natsuki Takaya. I am nothing before her story-writing abilities- nothing!_


	21. Ayashi No Ceres: Music

**Day: **21

**Fandom: **Ceres: Celestial Legend- Tokyo teen Aya discovers that she's possessed by the vengeful spirit of her ancestor on her sixteenth birthday, a Ten'nyo furious at the human man who stole her hagoromo. The problem is, the thieving ancestor has also been reborn; in the body of her twin brother, Aki, and while her family wants to protect their ancestor, they fear the Ten'nyo's wrath and want her dead…

**Themes(s): **Music

**Words: **517

**Warnings: **The probably erroneous assumption that old western pop Christmas songs are played in Japan.

"… _Try to imagine, a house that's not a home…"_

Aya hummed along vaguely to the song, not really listening to the words; not that she could really understand them, anyway. Aki was always much better at English than she was…

"_Aki_…" Aya dropped the book she was trying to read, propping up her knees and wrapping her arms around them. She pressed her face into her knees, her hair falling forwards and blocking off all light, leaving her in the darkness with her memories. Happy memories, beloved memories of her beloved brother… "_Can't you see these, Ceres? They're precious to me. So precious…_"

_Your good memories cannot replace my bad ones. I have so many more._

In her mind's eye, Aya could see the sad woman's face, her dark, reproachful eyes and never-smiling mouth. Ceres was looking at her like a foolish child; it was how she always treated Aya.

"_He's my brother!"_ Aya screamed in her mind. "_He's my big brother and I love him! Why? Why does _your_ hate have to destroy our family?_"

_Love can so easily become hate,_ Ceres said dispassionately, _but it cannot be turned back-_

"_I don't hate Aki,_" Aya thought stubbornly, "_and I never will. He's my family, and… I just want us to be together again…_"

Both of her fell silent; the music warbled on, the words incomprehensible but the melody palpably melancholy. You didn't have to know the words to hear the sadness. It spoke to Aya; there were no words for the sadness she felt. Nobody had ever created any words; nobody had ever felt like this.

_In the old days, sad music was not considered appropriate for winter, _Ceres said, apropos of nothing. _Winter music was loud, and lively, full of drums and beats that made your heart pound. It was… joyful._

"_What's that supposed to mean?_" Aya asked tiredly. She just wanted to roll over and fall asleep now, but would this intruder to her mind stay out of her dreams?

_Winter music was the first music. It was in defiance of the darkness. When the world was cold and hard and dead, humans made the loudest sounds that they could to prove that they were not. It is a curious aspect of your species. The deeper the darkness is, the stronger you grow. The more afraid you are, the harder you fight…_

"_Well, you have to fight hardest when it's hard to fight,_" Aya told her. "_Otherwise, you might as well roll over and die…_"

_Like you want to?_

Aya suddenly unfolded, jerking to her feet and stomping over to the radio to turn it to something bouncy, lively, something that seemed happy and hopeful. She still didn't understand the words, but that didn't matter.

"_Does this remind you of your old music, Ceres? If you have any happy memories at all, surely you have some of the music you called joyful?_"

Ceres didn't answer. Aya wondered if this meant that she'd won.

"… _and everyone is singing, I hear those sleighbells ringing, Santa won't you bring me the one I really need…_"

_For all that I've probably portrayed Ceres herself fairly negatively here, I actually really like the fallen angel… and thank crap, today is the shortest day of the year, and THAT means that from now on the days get longer and the sun gets warmer! YAAAAAAAS! *happy dancing*_

_Totally agree, __**Lisa Telramor**__… I mean, I'm actually the same age as Andy. I was 17 when TS3 came out, and the previous two were highly beloved movies in my childhood. I've grown up with Andy, so it was a very emotional thing to see that he, too, was growing up, and going to Uni, but still having to deal with the fact that he was still attached to things that he was "too old" for… _

_I don't own Ayashi No Ceres, Yuu Watase does. I think if I owned it, I don't think I'd have had it in me to make it as unbelievably dark or harsh as it can get._


	22. Ouran High School Host Club: Fireplace

**Day: **22

**Fandom: **Ouran High School Host Club: female scholarship student Haruhi ends up posing as a boy to work at Ouran High's luxurious Host Club in order to pay off a huge debt. The members are eclectic and spoiled, the secrets are heavy and the artist has clearly set them the task of mercilessly torturing every shojo cliché in existence.

**Themes(s): **Fireplace

**Words: **698

**Warnings: **The Host Club. Just… the Host Club.

The Ouran Private Institute; lineage first, money second. Winter has come, and the opulent campus is cloaked in snow, as the wealthy students are cloaked in fine winter furs and luxurious coats.

On the top floor of the south wing, at the end of the north hallway… the door opens to the flickering lights of fireplaces, and a host of Santa's elves.

"Haruhiiiiii, you're late again," the twins drawled. Haruhi figured that it was Hikaru in the red cap and Kaoru in the green one, but she also knew that they would probably swap caps, if not entire outfits, several times over the course of the afternoon, so resolved to keep on her toes. Not that she didn't have to anyway, in the Host Club. Another challenge was coming her way already.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki cried brightly, flourishing something red with white trimming that looked about wide enough for a decent-length skirt. "Father made a dress for you-!" The garment was abruptly and thankfully yanked out of his hands by Kyoya, who proceeded to toss it into the nearest fire, drawing a heartfelt scream from Tamaki which everyone ignored.

"You had better hurry and put your costume on before the customers arrive," Kyoya said, indicating a screen in the corner behind which Haruhi often changed into the Host Club's absurd costume schemes. Like Tamaki, he was wearing a white dress shirt with a green waistcoat and matching pants, though Tamaki's waistcoat and pants were red. He was also wearing a hat with a bell on it, which Haruhi tried hard not to stare at, instead focusing on ignoring Tamaki's hunched-up pout in the corner.

By the time she'd changed- an elf outfit similar to the twins', though significantly more subdued and less flamboyant, with fewer bells, almost like a suit- several customers had already arrived. They seemed to be mostly Hunny-and-Mori fans, giggling away as the smallest member of the club proudly showed them the hat he'd made for Bun-bun and talking about all the toys he'd make them for Christmas. Hunny was going for cutesy as possible, even wearing curly shoes, and was zipping about to Santa Mori's occasional quiet directions. He was even carrying a sack over one shoulder. When one of the girls shyly asked if she was really on the "nice" list, Mori quietly said that he didn't need to check the list twice to know that. That was all the contribution Mori generally needed; they all melted.

Kyoya seemed to actually be selling small toys, though what they were Haruhi decided not to examine too closely. She was starting to wonder if Kyoya ever actually entertained, or just hawked; he seemed to have fans nevertheless. Tamaki had gotten over his funk, and was effortlessly causing several girls to turn bright red at once in front of one of the fireplaces.

"Haruhi!" Miss Itsemi, a regular customer of Haruhi's, materialized at her side. "You look adorable!"

"I'm not fit for such compliments," Haruhi said modestly, and then made it into a Host compliment by adding, "not until I can compare to _you_."

"Oh, _Haruhi_," Miss Itsemi giggled. "Shall we go roast marshmallows by the fire? I've never done it myself, before, of course, but do you think you could show me?"

"Of course, Miss Itsemi," Haruhi said politely. She'd never actually roasted marshmallows herself, either, truth be told, but she knew how to do it because it was fairly obvious. The nice thing about hanging around rich, spoiled kids all day, she reflected, was that they could never be bothered to figure anything out, so she could seem knowledgeable about anything after a few moment's thought. It was almost worth the Club's ridiculous plans and absurd costumes and interior design to see the expressions of wonder on their faces at very simple things.

Of course, she reflected later, after all of the customers had left and the rest of the Club, fascinated by the prospect of roasting food on sticks, had joined her around her fireplace and were laughing and eating toast and marshmallows and anything else they'd been able to spear, including several things that probably should never be cooked… this was nice, too.

_I've only read the first few volumes of this manga, but I gotta get me some more. I LOVE THE TWINS SO MUCH. Seriously, if I was an Ouran girl, I'd be at that club every day playing the "Which One Is Hikaru?" game._

_I'm a bit of an angst addict myself, __**Lisa Telramor**__, so I adore Furuba and Ceres for having it by the truckload… ("I like it. It makes me sad." "What's so good about being sad?" "It's happy for deep people." XD) The manga of Ceres, at least, implies that Ceres had many happy memories with Mikagi before he went batshit insane XP_

_Much as I really, really wish I owned these silly, sweet and very, _very_ pretty boys, I don't. Bisco Hatori does. Lucky…_


	23. Fushigi Yugi: Trains and Star

**Day: **23

**Fandom: **Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play- gluttonous high-schooler Miaka is bored of her study-heavy, guy-free life, so she doesn't mind getting sucked into a fictional version of ancient China by a magical book, or even becoming the Priestess of Suzaku, if it means adventure, excitement, and dashing young emperors and mysterious but gorgeous warriors proposing to her left and right. The only snag is, her best friend Yui has ended up in the world of the book too, and has become the Priestess of Seiryu- the Priestess of Suzaku's mortal enemy…

**Themes(s): **Trains, Star

**Words: **188

**Warnings: **Some spoilers for the ending and the second half of the manga.

Miaka was starting to regret taking the trip back to Tokyo to see her mother on her own; she was going to be home in time for Christmas, and she didn't have to endure her mother constantly attacking Taka, but in between times, on the long train rides, she was kind of lonely.

At least, until the stars came out.

It didn't take her long to find all of the constellations; the seven constellations that were so precious to her, her guardian stars. Hotohori, Nuriko, Chichiri, Mitsukake, Tasuki, Chiriko… and of course, her beloved Tamahome.

They were the stars she wished to, but more often than not, what she wished for was the stars; or rather, those for whom the stars were their namesake, her dearest friends that she still missed so keenly, even after the years it had been since she'd been inside the book. She felt that the perfect Christmas would be one she could spend with all of them together again, but none of them could be reborn in her world like Taka was…

Still, with their stars watching over her, she never felt alone.

_One of my first manga series that I ever read, and still one I love. Miaka bugs me, but I love Chichiri and latter's death made me cry like crazy._

_I feel like these are getting sappier as the month goes on… *looks back at first oneshot and realizes it's the Professor Layton one* or not :P_

_Creepy coincidences, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__! And speaking of creepy… yeah, you just can't help liking Kyoya, can you? XD_

_I love the Ouran manga, __**Roseanni**__… not read past volume 6, though… must read more XD_

_Waitaminnit, __**Lisa Telramor**__… time actually passes in Ouran's world? XD I suspect I'd end up being Haruhi, too… or possibly Kyoya, if I wore my glasses XD I think I should probably watch the Ouran anime, since I sure it has a different spectrum of taking the piss… like, as you pointed out, the theme music XDXD_

_Fushigi Yugi is Yuu Watase's property, not mine. The Constellations belong to Suzaku, and I rather think that Suzaku belongs to itself._


	24. Doctor Who: Christmas Lights

**Day: **24

**Fandom: **Doctor Who- epic British scifi series whose viewing figures now outrank church attendance every week. Based around the character of The Doctor, a 900-odd year old alien who travels throughout history and the universe using his TARDIS, or Time And Relative Dimensions In Space (which, due to a malfunction in the Chameleon Circuit, looks like a 60's London police box). His species can regenerate themselves whenever they're dying, which is always a good excuse to change actors, but nevertheless he's the last (sort of) of his species and so he often travels with human friends, currently the epic Scottish girl Amy and her new husband Rory.

**Themes(s): **Christmas Lights

**Words: **333

**Warnings: **I don't think I managed to make Amy as awesome as she usually is.

"So, where next for your honeymoon of a lifetime?" The Doctor said, skipping around the TARDIS and pressing various random buttons that, to Rory's eye, didn't seem to do anything. Possibly they really didn't, and the Doctor just liked pressing them. It was making random lights flash on and off somewhere, but not much else.

"You know what I like?" Amy decided, hopping up to sit on the railing next to Rory. "Christmas!"

"Amy, it's nowhere near Christmas," Rory pointed out. His bride rolled her eyes, which was quite vivid with the amount of mascara she was wearing.

"Time machine!" The Doctor said brightly, pressing something that made a screen light up. "So, any particular Christmas? Anywhere in particular? Erm, preferably not London in the 21st century. Or the Middle East any time at all, especially around the beginning of the first century. Ran some messages for a bloke once, went up the hills to let some of his pals know that his missus had a baby. Never heard the end of that…" he twirled off again, pressing something that turned all the lights in the TARDIS red and green. Rory was aware that he was gawping.

"Did he just say what I think…?" He began. Amy gave him a peck on the lips, cutting him off.

"Probably," she said, before waving at the Doctor. "Surprise us! You know somewhen fun?"

"Oooh, how about London in 1630?" The Doctor suggested. "First year of Charlie the Second's reign, first time you could legally celebrate Christmas for decades, and boy did they _party_!"

"Brill! Sounds great!" Amy said, hopping down and pulling Rory with her. "C'mon, let's go to the wardrobe and find some seventeenth-century duds, even stuffy wedding gear probably won't cut it…"

"Aren't you going to change too?" Rory called over his shoulder as he was hauled off. The Doctor looked affronted.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" he said, tweaking his clothes. "Bow ties are cool, everywhere, everywhen. Bow ties are always cool!"

_To be honest, I love David Tennant's Doctor way more than Matt Smith's, but I also love Amy to bits XD (She got to keep her accent, why didn't David? He has such a sexy Scottish accent ;) ) Can't wait for the Christmas Special tomorrow, nevertheless! MAKE AMY BE AWESOME!_

_I don't think happy endings are a bad cliché, __**Lisa Telramor**__- they're what I generally shoot for! I just think that they're way happier if they come after tons of angst XD Gotta find the Ouran manga… well, my post-Christmas Forbidden Planet/Amazon shopping spree should deal with that XD_

_Ouran's finished, __**KageNoNeko**__? I wonder how much of it's been translated… *goes Amazon hunting*_

_I don't own the Doctor. Nobody owns the Doctor. The Doctor owns all of time and space._


	25. All: Parties

**Day: **25

**Fandom: **All of them :)

**Themes(s): **Parties

**Words: **800

**Warnings: **My insanity is on display in full here.

"C'mon, Hunny, leave some of the cakes for the others. Tasuki, I think you've had quite enough to drink now- so it's your fault, Florence! No more of yours and Marik's drinking games, alright? Miroku, if you dare touch Angela, Rose _will _break your arm. Mikagi, put that fire out right _now_! Please stop dancing, JD… No, Shinichi, no karaoke… wait, why are _you_ here?"

"You once vaguely considered turning your Two Bites story into a Twilight crossover, with the BO being the Volturi," Edward said dully.

"Which means that our plunnies exist in your head now," Bella added sycophantically. Mangaluva facepalmed.

"Yes, and there's a very good reason that I didn't go through with it- and for that matter, why you're _not_ in the oneshot collection!" she said, pointing at the metaphysical door out of her head. "All of you, out. Although the werewolves can stay if you take their shirts with you. Oh, Alice, you too, I like you. And Charlie, you have the only good lines in the movies. But the rest of you faux vampires, OUT!" A very pretty woman with ash-blonde hair and armour suddenly stopped and started snarling viciously, requiring a tall and handsome ginger, also in armour, to grab onto her arms to hold her back. "Or I'll make Captain Carrot let go so Sergeant Angua can eat you. She's from a superior author, so she'd win."

"Taking into account that you have a separate folder for each serial story, and a large folder for oneshots…" a cool voice commented behind her. Mangaluva span around to see a tall boy with dark hair, glasses and an expensive suit peering over the shoulder of a boy with spiky blond hair and headphones, tapping away rapidly at a laptop. "… it is interesting to note that you have twenty-seven stories on , including oneshots, and yet you have one hundred and twelve folders…"

"Kyoya, Flippy… you guys went through my _computer?_" Mangaluva shrieked. Flippy just gave her a thumbs-up, even though he couldn't possibly hear her over the music that was blaring out of his headphones; it sounded like Slade. The laptop promptly flew out of his hands and across the room, making him squawk. Nobody had touched it, but across the room, Obi-Wan was grinning suspiciously.

"You know, he would have known anyway," The Doctor- David Tennant's, of course- pointed out. "After all, this entire party is a hallucinated projection of all of your creative impulses."

"Does that not mean that she is talking to herself?" Hiei said, striding past and drinking a glass of what Mangaluva hoped was red wine. "Nutjob…" She considered giving him Evil Eyes, but was very aware that he could do it better.

"Now, this is very ungentlemanly, to pick on the young lady so," Professor Layton interjected.

"You're only defending her because she ships you with Claire," Kyo sniggered, causing Yuki to give him a slap to the head that put him through a wall. The Professor blushed, touching his top hat nervously, but Claire was indeed at his side, as she likely would be if Mangaluva ever wrote any proper Professor Layton fic, so he clammed up. Thankfully, everyone was then distracted when a sucker dart, possibly coming out of the toy gunfight going on between Woody, Buzz and Flippy, hit Shuuya Nanahara on the forehead, who promptly panicked, flashbacked and drew a real handgun. While Hermione Expelliarmused it out of his hand, Mangaluva crept backwards slightly, then paused as she heard a scratching on the metaphysical door.

She opened it and looked down at the two cubs glaring up at her.

"You _promised_ you'd do one of us," the golden one complained indignantly. The tan one thumped him on the head with a paw, hissing that he was being rude.

"I'm so sorry, Simba," Mangaluva said, crouching down to give the pair a cuddle. "I meant to, but I couldn't work Christmas- or even _winter_- into the African savannah…" Simba cocked his head, looking at her with large, adorable, confused eyes.

"… What's "Christmas"?" he asked at last. Nala thumped him again, and the two started playfighting, rolling into the party and nearly steamrollering Plum and Kotoko.

"There's plenty of food that you can reach," she called after the giggling ball of fur. "I set out some low tables for Wolf Link and the smaller Pokémon…" Then she stretched and yawned. It was getting late, she was tired, and there were presents tomorrow. Simba was at the party, so she couldn't cuddle her stuffed Simba like she usually did. She needed a substitute.

"SesshoMaru-sama, can you come here a moment?" she called. "You too, Kid-sama. And Kurama. The Hitachiins too. Oh, and Jacob. And Toya. And Green. And _human_ Link… Twilight Princess, yes, you… and Hatsuharu…"

_Merry Christmas, Happy Hogswatch, Happy Sun Festival, whatever you want to call it, I hope you're enjoying it! Thanks to all that have read my fics this year, extra thanks to the reviewers, and I hope you've enjoyed it all! See you next year! ;)_

_It's a good accent, __**SoftcoreOtaku**__ To Mangareader!_

_All of _Doctor Who's_ good stuff, __**Lisa Telramor**__; the actors are good, the effects of the new series are great, and the writing's divine :D_

_I do like manga that leave the Japanese in, __**KageNoNeko**__, since it's an interesting way to learn a little of the language, and you're right; some things lose things in translation. Doctor Who is so ahead in the UK because of the BBC, BITCHES! :D *cough* So yeah, it takes ages to get across to the USA. It's probably online, though, and it's worth the effort to track down, it really is._

_I'm not as fond of Matt Smith's Doctor as I am of David Tennant's, __**Roseanni**__, but he isnae bad and Amy is well worth it. She is AWESOME. Merry Christmas!_

_Disclaimer: If you want to claim any of these guys, feel free to come into my head to get them back. But you really, really don't want to do that…_


End file.
